1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to computers and computer software. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and apparatus for displaying compiler-optimized code.
2. Description of the Background Art
In an Integrated Development Environment (IDE), computer users and programmers use a program editor to write computer programs and develop software applications in the form of source code. The source code is conventionally written in a high-level programming language. e.g., C++, the Java® programming language, Pascal, and the like. To run such computer programs in a computer system, a compiler program must convert the source code into executable code or object code.
Most compilers incorporate at least one type of optimization in converting source code into object code. Many of these compiler optimization schemes are directed to reducing the time to run or execute the object code. Procedure inlining, common subexpression elimination, and copy propagation are just a few of the many available compiler optimizations.
The current computer systems simply implement the compiler optimizations without displaying results of the compiler optimization to the user or programmer. Without the opportunity to view how these compiler optimizations operate, programmers become prone to writing “lazy code” or poorly written computer programs. A computer system running such lazy code may suffer a decrease in performance, e.g., a higher run time of the object code converted from the source code. Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus for displaying compiler-optimized code.